We rarely hear the acknowledgement that some walls are necessary: the walls that protect a person’s dignity.

by Priya Basil

The impulse to make a personal claim on space is deeply human. People do it, often subconsciously, even in public places: in restaurants we gravitate towards the corner table, at the yoga studio we try always to be in the same spot, in the office we mark our desk with plants or pictures. Such gestures affirm our right to be and to choose, they afford a sense of security.

In situations where people have been forced out of their familiar environment – their home, or even their country – and must be sheltered en masse, claiming a personal space becomes more difficult, yet the need to do so is more essential.

The newcomers in Europe have navigated all manner of borders and fences, literal and metaphorical, to get here. Amidst the talk of dismantling the barriers – national, international, legal, bureaucratic – that make refugee journeys such an ordeal, we rarely hear the acknowledgement that some walls are necessary: the walls that protect a person’s dignity.

Intimacy Partitions, designed by architect Michelle Howard, offer individuals a temporary refuge from the crowd. Made from recyclable flame retardant white cardboard, the partitions come flat-packed and are designed to be assembled without tools or fuss. A few cable ties and a length of rope help to hold the elegant construction in place, but its extraordinary stability comes from the unique way in which the material is folded.

The Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi once asserted that, “Architecture is basically a container of something.” The Intimacy Partitions provide a simple container for the self. Every unit offers neutral place of retreat amenable to personalization: each white wall invites you to pen a drawing or put up photos, different door hangings allow you a choice of colour.

Where status is uncertain, as it is for many asylum seekers, having some sense of boundaries, of a safe space, becomes all the more vital. The temporary nature of the Partitions intimates that things will change, you will move on – but until then you have a room of your own.

Migration – forced or voluntary – is the ur-narrative of humankind. Threads of migration over millennia have created the fabric of the world as we know it. There have been all kinds of knots, tangles and ruptures everywhere as people have moved, but essential and enduring patterns – social, cultural, political, economic – have also been woven. Germany is no exception.Germany did not turn into a country of immigration in the summer of 2015. Nor did Europe become a continent of immigration because of Lampedusa and Lesbos. Europe has long been a locus of exchanges, with peoples and goods crisscrossing its landmass and shores, many coming from or heading to the other side of the globe. Throughout its history, as empires waxed and waned, as wars erupted and ceased, as economies thrived and stagnated, one thing above all has defined the continent: movement. Europe has always been in a state of flux, with ever-shifting borders and populations. Today, ‘united in diversity’ is the motto of the European Union, and the free movement of peoples one of its founding principles.Similarly, the German Confederation of the mid-nineteenth century was an entity encompassing many languages and nationalities. Its regions were amongst the most diverse in Europe, multi-ethnic and multi-religious. Later, many thousands of Poles moved to the Ruhr area. Early in the twentieth century great numbers of Russians came to Germany – during the Weimar Republic there were enough to guarantee a readership for over eighty Russian-language newspapers. The false notion of an ethnically homogenous land was only propagated, and violently enforced, by the Nazis. Since the end of the Third Reich, many newcomers have settled in the country including, from the 1960s, numerous Turks who were decisive in achieving West Germany’s ‘economic miracle’. More recently, hundreds of thousands of citizens have moved to Germany from all over Europe and beyond. All this belies the attempts by some, including the former Helmut Kohl government, to dissociate Germany from its own migration reality. Indeed, Germans themselves have also long emigrated in great numbers. During the post-Napoleonic era in the early 1800s the wish to escape oppression and privation in Europe led many to Brazil, and millions more to America. It was ever thus, and remains so – 800,000 people left Germany in 2013 alone. Such strands of migration have always enriched the receiving country. Newcomers bring new energy, ideas, stories, images, hopes and possibilities into our midst.Yet anxieties about ‘the other’ persist. This is most evident in the fear of those now arriving after fleeing war or want. There’s a sense that these people are ‘too strange’, ‘too different’ from ‘us’. Not only are these fears misplaced, they also stem from a failure to recognize that instances of estrangement and misunderstanding are part of being in a truly pluralistic society. Think of the rapper bewildered by the priest living one-floor above her, the charity worker who fights over a parking place with a preppy banker, the sausage-maker who shakes his head at the vegan. Think of yourself, of the people you dislike or disagree with, of the moments when anger has alienated you even from those you hold most dear. If belonging were contingent on sameness and agreement, none of us would ever fit in. Belonging is the end of an effort, an effort to understand and accept. The challenge is always how far are we willing to make the effort and extend the circle of empathy.Refusing to engage with newcomers to a society, or even actively resisting their presence, diminishes all of us. At the state level, moves to tighten up asylum laws only constrict our imagination of how people can live together, thus limiting the possibilities for a just and inclusive society. It might feel better to hunker down in the comfort zone of the familiar, but the sense of security is false. True self-confidence in oneself and one’s values involves being able to step into uncertainty, reach out to others and try another way of doing things.

The newcomers may be on terra incognita, but we are on very old ground, fertile with the experiences of countless ‘others’ who came before. We have the extraordinary chance of continuing a different journey in familiar terrain, of seeing ourselves afresh through someone else’s eyes, of re-discovering what we have through what we share. We open ourselves to this new reality. We extend a hand to the newcomers. We write this chapter of the story together. Wir machen das.

About us

Globalization has reached the next level. Previously, it was driven by technical progress and economic possibilities. And suddenly now there are people involved. They are stepping out from behind the data, facts, strategies and analyses – into the midst of our lives, the midst of our society. Politics and its consequences, along with its failures, are taking on physical form, here and now.The action alliance WE’RE DOING IT is facing up to this irreversible development.WE’RE originally 100 women from the worlds of art, academia and public life. We’re now a growing alliance of numerous initiatives, individuals and institutions. We are united by the common goal of facing up to the challenge of worldwide migration with humanity and expertise.DOING means: every one of us doing what he or she can do. From folding clothes to lobbyism, from class action lawsuits to sea rescue, from providing a bed for the night to construction projects, from legal advice to language support, from cultural participation to finding jobs and from personal statements to broad-based media campaigns.IT is a movement away from pity and opinion, aid and defence mechanisms towards a culture of sharing and self-determined shaping of our world. Whether that happens without, with or against political institutions, changes every day anew in practice. We’re not afraid because we have a plan. And we’re prepared to adapt that plan to changing conditions whenever we need to.

Ashraf Fayadh has been sentenced to death by a court in Saudi ArabiaInstagram user @ashraffayadhWriters, poets and institutions will unite the world over tonight (14 January) to show solidarity with Palestinian poet, Ashraf Fayadh, who has been sentenced to death by Saudi Arabia for allegedly renouncing Islam. Fayadh's poetry will be read at 122 events in 44 countries as part of a campaign by the International Literature Festival Berlin (ILB) in protest at Saudi Arabia's decision, which it accuses of "disregarding human rights and the rule of law".

Speaking to IBTimes UK, writer Priya Basil - who will moderate tonight's discussion in Berlin and helped organise the event - said: "Words can always be interpreted differently and that's the power of literature - that there are many interpretations, that there isn't just one version. The idea that somebody can insist on a single interpretation and then condemn you to death for that is actually deeply, deeply shocking and disturbing, and so everybody is rallying around the complete injustice of that."

Basil added: "Even if you look at thinkers from the Islamic tradition and from the Arab world, they are as vehement against the idea of a single interpretation, because Islam has always been very pluralistic." She continued: "If they were to insist on a single interpretation even from a religious point of view, [it] does seem questionable". Tonight's reading will "unite politics and literature, so around the fate of this one person, we have a bigger political discussion about everybody's fate".

What does Fayadh stand accused of?

Fayadh has been behind bars since January 2014 after being accused of making blasphemous comments and renouncing Islam in his 2008 book, Instructions Within. Fayadh refutes the charge of blasphemy and said the collection of poems are "just about me being [a] Palestinian refugee...about cultural and philosophical issues. But the religious extremists explained it as destructive ideas against God." He was initially sentenced to 800 lashes and four years imprisonment in May 2014 by the general court in Abha, southern Saudi Arabia, but he was retried in November 2015 and handed the death sentence by a panel of judges.Adam Coogle, Middle East Researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW) told IBTimes UK: "To be clear, he [Fayadh] denies that he ever made any blasphemous statements and he denies that his book is blasphemous in any way." Riyadh has come under intense scrutiny over its dismal human rights record and mass executions in January - including that of Shia cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, which saw a rapid breakdown in diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

How should the international community react?

"Every country that has a good relationship with Saudi Arabia should use whatever diplomatic influence it has to try to curtail some of these executions," Coogle said. "In terms of the UK relationship, one of the things we need to point to is whether or not the UK is selling Saudi Arabia any weapons that are being used to commit war crimes in Yemen."Prime Minister David Cameron has come under pressure to reassess UK's relationship with the oil-rich Gulf kingdom and has faced calls by the Scottish National Party (SNP) to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia after Riyadh's execution of 47 people sparked global outrage. In an interview last year, Cameron defended Britain's relationship with Saudi Arabia, saying it provides the UK with "important intelligence and security information that keeps us safe". The prime minister also faced a backlash after failing to comment on the recent spate of executions earlier this month.

According to HRW, Saudi Arabia carried out 152 executions between January and November 2015. Following the death sentence handed to Fayadh, HRW said: "Saudi authorities regularly pursue charges against individuals based solely on their peaceful exercise of freedom of expression, in violation of international human rights obligations." The organisation's Middle East director, Sarah Leah Whitson added: "This death sentence against Fayadh is yet another indictment of Saudi Arabia's human rights record."

The readings of Fayadh’s poetry at 122 events in 44 countries on Thursday are part of a campaign organised by the International literature festival Berlin calling on the UK and US governments to halt his beheading and to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to improve its human rights record.